WHAT DID I PACK TO SOUTH EAST ASIA?

In here, I will talk about the big and important purchases I made before leaving for a 4 month trip to South East Asia. It’s not an exhaustive list, but I put a lot of thoughts into certain decisions and wanted to share my conclusions with you 🙂

My Camera: SONY RX100 MARK III

As I started a YouTube Channel along with this blog, I needed a vlogging camera! After some research I found the perfect vlogging camera for me: the Sony RX100 Mark III. It has the one most important feature for all vlogging cameras: a screen that flips completely so you can see yourself while you talk to the camera.

It has a few disadvantages that might make me consider upgrading in the future, but so far it fills my needs. The image is great, even in low light, battery is good and there are many settings to play with to achieve your perfect image. It’s also pretty expensive so here are some things I wish I’d known before purchasing the Sony RX100:

The zoom is pretty average and you can’t change the lense

Most functions are only accessible trough menus – not physical buttons : it makes ajusting setting a bit slow

There is no way to plug in an external microphone – the built in one is okay but not the best either.

I would still recommend it as a starter vlogging camera but if you’re planning on doing this for a long time, maybe invest a little more money and look into a more serious camera

You can also buy the new model, it’s a bit better and a bit more expensive: http://geni.us/3uhX

My Laptop: MACBOOK PRO (late 2011)

Obviously if I had the money I’d buy the newest most powerful MacBook Pro but I love my computer and it’s an absolutely essential tool for my travels and video blogging. It’s relatively light and compact which is super important when on the road. My boyfriend Alex has a laptop with the same internal specs but it’s just so much bulkier and heavier! On top of that, the compactness and lack of moving parts of a Mac make it really resilient to all the shaking and moving around it will inevitably go through on the road. It’s also a super powerful machine with a great battery life: perfect for heavy software like Final Cut Pro that I use to edit the videos. If I wasn’t doing the vlog I would probably prefer the MacBook air. I didn’t buy the laptop specially for the trip – had it from 2011 but I was seriously considering buying a new machine. After careful consideration, I decided against it because the MacBook even after 5 years still works perfectly well and fast!

My Towel: A MICROFIBER TRAVEL TOWEL

I know, it can seem a bit stupid recommending a towel amongst things like expensive cameras and computer but I have to tell you: buying this towel has improved my traveling tremendously! I wish I could go back in time and buy it before my trip across the Balkans 2 years ago… It dries so fast, packs so small and works so well: the perfect travel towel.

(I got mine last minute at Walmart but they didn’t have very nice colors left… Get yours in advance!)

A BIG POWER BAR

With a phone, a laptop and a camera each I don’t know how we would have made it without the extension chord. I swear it’s probably the most important thing we took. Don’t forget to check if you need an adapter for the country you’re going to as well! An extension chord could have been useful too, but I’m not sure it’s worth the extra weight: your call 🙂

You can buy one here: http://geni.us/43GN (or at your local hardware store but don’t get the cheap dollar store ones)

Thank you for reading! Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions about what I packed.

Also, here’s a video I made on the subject if you want to know a little bit more about what’s in my bag: